Rebecca MacKinnon's postings about work, reading, and ideas from 2004-2011.

February 02, 2005

Blogstorm descending on CNN

Right-wing blogs, including Little Green Footballs, have moved their sights from CBS to CNN. At the center of the blogstorm are comments made by my former boss Eason Jordan at Davos, in which he alleged that the U.S. military had been targeting journalists in Iraq. See the original post about it by Rony Abovitz (founder of the digital surgery company Z-Kat, attending the forum as a "tech pioneer"), which he posted on the Forumblog - an "unnoficial" blog where World Econ Forum participants posted their impressions and views about sessions they attended. The official WEF summary does not mention Eason's remarks, and there is no transcript or webcast. But I was in the room and Rony's account is consistent with what I heard. I was also contributing to the Forumblog, but to be honest, Jordan happens to be my former boss who promoted me and defended me in some rather sticky situations after my reporting angered the Chinese government. As CNN's "senior statesman" over the years, Eason has done some things I agreed with and other things I wondered about. But at least when it came to China, he was no apologist and defended my reports on human rights abuses and political dissent. So I don't feel that I'm in a position to speak objectively on this issue, especially since I haven't been in Iraq and don't know the real situation on the ground. I would very much like to hear from other journalists working in Iraq. I'd like to hear, particularly, from other CNN reporters working in Iraq. Whether they'll be willing to speak out publicly on this issue is doubtful, but maybe others will. Maybe we'll hear from some of them anonymously. Maybe Kevin Sites and other journalists blogging from Iraq will let us know what they think.

UPDATE: I have emailed people at the World Economic Forum requesting a verbatim transcript of what precisely was said during the panel in question. I have also emailed Eason Jordan asking him whether he'd like to confirm and/or clarify his comments, since I did not record the session myself and my notes are not verbatim.

Comments

Just to be clear, Davos reported Jordan as saying that he had knowledge of 12 journalists who were targeted and killed by US troops. If this is accurate, Jordan was talking about deliberate murder. Davos says that Jordan repeated the allegation, and got an enthusiastic response from part of the audience.

The context makes it clear that Jordan (if he said this) was not talking about accidents or friendly fire incidents, he was talking about murder. Is that consistent with what you heard?

So Jordan is loyal and has good points. Lots of people who have done terrible things have been people with good points. Jordan has accused the US military of murdering journalists, essentially of using deadly force to prevent bad press. That is something that Saddam did, Hitler did, Stalin did, Putin did in his KGB days (and perhaps will do again)... it is NOT something the US military does. We are the good guys. Jordan is not just unable to differentiate; he has now identified us as the bad guys. If it is true that he said this and if he cannot back it with evidence, he should damn well resign in disgrace.

I'm really confused here. This guy is allegedly a journalist? He says he knows of 12 other journalists who were deliberately murdered by the US miltary. And his network never reported it!!!! What are the names of these journalists, where were they killed, how were they killed? You know, who, where and how. Or don't we do this anymore?

The UCMJ is very specific about things like murder, about targeting of noncombatants, about conspiracy (the deliberate targeting of 12 different individuals is, by definition, a conspiracy unless one person did all the shooting).

Abu Ghraib is a walk in the park compared to this. And since most "journalists" were accompanied by cameras in Indian Country, it would be relatively easy to pull the bulk tapes of these incidents to see the 5 Ws. So if Mr. Jordan's assertions are true? Oeyh...

You have done a brave thing by backing up Forumblog's assertion, for it seems you have put yourself squarely at odds with the MSM. One need only contact Dick Morris or Bernard Goldberg to see what the prospects of that situation can or will be for you should this not be an accurate representation of Mr. Jordan's views.

My only advice - Don't let the blogosphere treat you like a speed bump.

Best of luck in what is going to be a very trying couple of days for you.